My Aunt Alice was one of the best cooks I ever knew, often creating new recipes and producing interesting and delicious meals and fabulous desserts.
Once while visiting her at her home in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, she made the most delicious strawberry pie I had ever eaten.
My mother and I copied her recipe and started making it for our families and friends, to universal praise. Combining fresh strawberries with puréed and cooked berries, this pie has always been the essence of strawberry for me.
A year or so later I was visiting her in Guadalajara and asked her a question about the recipe.
“What strawberry pie?” she said, “I never made a pie like that.”
I described the party where she had served it and explained the pie in detail.
“No, “ she insisted, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
We never solved the mystery, but a few years later the same thing happened with my cousin (her daughter) and a salad recipe. Hmm…
I’m sure glad I got the recipe for Aunt Alice’s Strawberry Pie!